This is a feature
story published right before thanksgiving holidays on Star Tribune.

It is a consumer
guide feature that provides advises of free interesting holiday activities for
people live in the metro area.

The feature
properly uses a short-form structure, dividing the optional activities into
separate units with subtitles. This is pretty easy to read and satisfies the
audiences' short attention spans.

Also, it provides timely and effective information with tight writing for the audience.

While giving
useful information in each unit, I do think that it is necessary to add some more details about the activities.

Another thing I think
is not good is that the design and layout of the feature is really boring. It would be
much better to attach pictures and patterns around each unit to make it more
attractive and unique.

Based on five days
spending with Bryant, Sager conducts a story of him, who Sager described as "the
most misunderstood figures in sports today."

Sager clearly
organizes the story by different topics. He conveys three main aspects -career,
family and public image -- of Bryant in three different scenes.

Another good thing
about the profile is writing in the first person. Because it could bring the
audiences close to the subject - a celebrity that is far away from our daily
life -- and attract people's attention.

I think the first
paragraph of the story didn't conduct very well, compiling too many details
without showing the name, which just makes it awkward.

But the details
work pretty well in the photo-taking story, which Sager brings a great amount
of conversation between Bryant and his wife.

Rules to
Eat By is a trend feature written
by Michael Pollan for the New York Times. The story talks about the food
issue that people are misguided by the "dazzling food science" conveyed by
marketers, government and experts in the current market.

The feature
applies a traditional structure, arranging
the author's viewpoint into a logical order.

The article can be
divided into two parts. In the first half, Pollan points out that the
so-called "food science," even published bythe nutritionists, is undependable. And the rest suggests that we'd
better rely on the "popular wisdom," which is the way we used before, to choose
food and stay healthy.

I think Pollan organizes
the story pretty well by using the rhetoricquestion andsecond-person writing style.

He raises questions
in the beginning of each part and gives the answer in the followings. This
approach drives the audiences' interests, makes them feel as if they are
pursuing the answer themselves, which is particularly useful when dealing with the
issues in people's daily life

One problem in the
second half of the feature is that it is too abstract for just saying "we
relied on culture" and "ruls of thumb about eating that have been passed down
in our families or plucked from the cultural conversation."

I think that it would
be more convincing for providing specific examples, just as Pollan conducted in
the first half of the story.

The Star Tribune reported
Sunday that the state officials claimed that the cost of the Mn/DOT project Northern Lights
Express from Minneapolis to Duluth has risen to $990 million, more than
double last year's $360 million estimate.

"We've come up with what many might call a worst-case scenario," said
Mn/DOT project manager Dave Christianson.

The state government is now competing with 40 states for getting up to 80
percent of the cost cover with federal funds.

The NLX project team will conduct public open house meetings in Hinckley,
Cambridge, Coon and Superior. The first meeting will be held at Cambridge's Armed
Forces Reserve Community Center at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

The WDIO reported
Nov.13 that consultant for NLX claimed $550 million budget for the
project, which is much less than the one claimed by Mn/DOT consultant.

Gary Cerkvenik, a consultant for NLX, was
interviewed by the WDIO report.

The MSNBC reported
Sunday that four uniformed police officerswere shot and killed in a coffee
shop in Parkland, Wash., Sunday morning. The Pierce County
Sheriff's officials identified the attack as a "targeted ambush."

The sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said the suspect fled the scene on foot
and might be hurt by a return shot from one of the victims.

Troyer said the victims were from the Lakewood
Police Department. Their names will be released after all their families are
notified.

The police are trying to reconstruct the crime by interviewing all the
witnesses in the cafe at the time. No one else was hurt.

The gunman was a "scruffy-faced black man in his 20s or 30s, 5 feet 7 to 5
feet 10 and wearing a black jacket over a gray hooded sweatshirt, and blue
jeans," according to the MSNBC.

Maurice Clemmons, a man with previous criminal record with police, is
identified as "person of interest" by authorities.

The Seattle Times reported
Sunday that Clemmons was just released one week ago after several months' jail
for "the child-rape charge."

The article pointed out that Clemmons has a long criminal history "includes
at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges
in Washington."

The MSNBC also noticed that the police haven't found it any connection with
the Seattle
police shooting on Halloween night.